Often you may have need to have separate helpdesk instance for each of your department or team or region. This may be to prevent overlapping of agents and to isolate the tickets access scope from department to department.
The first step is to install the AssistMyTeam Helpdesk Manager tool on a pilot system, with the user installing it having full rights on the SQL server (i.e., to be able to create a new database).
Once installed, when you start Outlook, you will be prompted to configure a database from the ‘Helpdesk Settings Data Source‘ dialog box. If this is not already displayed, click the ‘Helpdesk Settings Data Source’ button from Outlook > File > AssistMyTeam Helpdesk Manager tab.
Input in the SQL Server name and click ‘Test’ to make sure the connection is correct. By default, the database to be created is named as ‘AssistMyTeamHelpdeskDB‘. You can change this to reflect the department name or account, for example, ‘Sales-Team‘. And then click ‘Save‘ button on the upper left corner.
This will create a new database by the name ‘Sales-Team’ in your SQL Server. And you will be offered to customize the starting sequence ID for the tickets and KB articles that will be used by the helpdesk. By default, new tickets and articles will start from ID 1. If you want ticket ID to start from, say, 10000, input that in the text box. And click ‘Continue‘.
Next, you will be offered if to load a demo of the tickets, articles and lists of sample callers, problems, statuses etc. to your new database. You can skip this process if you want a clean, empty data set.
Now, your first helpdesk instance is ready for your sales team. To create and configure a second helpdesk instance for your HR team from the same pilot system, go to Outlook > File > AssistMyTeam Helpdesk Manager tab, and click ‘Reset Connection‘.
You will be prompted for confirmation to severe the link between the helpdesk add-in and the current database.
Click ‘Yes‘ to reset the connection of your helpdesk add-in to the current database (which is the ‘Sales-Team’). If the reset was successful, you will see a confirmation message box.
Click ‘OK‘. This action will now allow you to create a new connection to a new database for your HR Team in your SQL server. That is, you will be prompted with the ‘Helpdesk Settings Data Source’ panel, where you can enter the new database name of your HR Team (e.g., HR-Team). And click ‘Save’ button in the upper left corner to continue.
And the same steps continue as earlier demonstrated in this article. This way you can create any number of helpdesk instances for your different departments, teams or offices with each helpdesk instance tied to its own database and agents, isolated from other instances.
Now, your users can start installing the Helpdesk Agent add-in to their Outlook. And once installed, each user needs to choose the appropriate helpdesk instance (i.e. department database) from Outlook > Helpdesk toolbar > Settings > Helpdesk Settings Data Source.
This is done by clicking the ‘Choose’ button in the Helpdesk Settings Data Source panel.
A list of available databases in the SQL Server is shown for selection.
Each user needs to choose the correct department database from the list to create a permanent connection between their helpdesk add-in and their department database.
And then click ‘Save‘. Doing this will link the helpdesk add-in installed on that particular system to the chosen department database permanently until you reset the connection.